South Africa cuts nearly 500 km off Zimbabweans' asylum journey

"Border jumpers" make an illegal dash from Zimbabwe into South Africa.

MUSINA, SOUTH AFRICA, Aug. 7 (UNHCR) – For Absalom Moyo* the relief in getting his asylum seeker permit is obvious. "It's like a dream come true," exclaims Moyo, who recently entered South Africa illegally, fleeing violence in his native Zimbabwe.

"Receiving this so quickly has taken me by surprise and it has definitely made up for the horrible experience I went through when coming to South Africa," he says, displaying the permit he says has allowed him to relax and not always be on his guard.

Moyo is one of hundreds of Zimbabweans to recently benefit from a Department of Home Affairs' (DHA) initiative to process Section 22 asylum seeker permits in Musina, just 12 kilometres away from the Beit Bridge crossing where so many force their way through a weak link in the border fence town to enter South Africa illegally. Previously they risked arrest or deportation as they made their way 500 kilometres or more to Pretoria or Johannesburg to register.

"What we saw here as increasing numbers of Zimbabweans came into the town in need of international protection was that there was an urgent need for improvement in access to the asylum procedures," explains Camilla Kragelund, UNHCR Protection Officer assigned to Musina.

Just ask Moyo what a typical asylum seeker has to go through. He fled threats to his life at the hands of Zimbabwe's Zanu PF youth in recent weeks, only to run into more torment moments after his illegal "border jumping."

Like many Zimbabweans crossing illegally into South Africa through vast tracts of bush, Moyo fell victim to the notorious Gumaguma gangs – groups of marauding armed men bent on exploiting the vulnerability of their countrymen and women. Moyo was set upon by seven Gumaguma who stripped him of what valuables he had hidden on his person.

"They gave me some old shoes and an old maize meal sack to wear to continue my journey to Musina," he recalls with anger and frustration. "All my money including $57 U.S. and a few Zimbabwe dollars, gone just like that!"

Moyo's dignity was somewhat restored by a sympathetic vegetable stall owner who took pity on him as he approached the town of Musina and gave him a pair of trousers and a shirt. He then lay low at the Anglican Church in Nancefield, a township some 3 kilometres outside Musina, to avoid detection, arrest and deportation at the hands of the South African police and immigration officers before getting his asylum seeker permit.

He was fortunate to be able to get it in Musina, though. Previously asylum seekers entering South Africa through Beit Bridge had to go to Pretoria, 500 kilometres away, to apply for refugee status.

"That's far if you've come here with nothing and it's really far if you've entered the country illegally and don't have any documentation at all," says UNHCR's Kragelund.

Refugees and asylum seekers travelling to Pretoria or Johannesburg have always been at a very high and very real risk of being arrested and deported. UNHCR has long advocated for improved and easier access to asylum procedures in Musina, and with an increase in arrivals of Zimbabweans in Musina, the DHA opened a refugee reception office in July this year.

"They responded remarkably quickly," says Kragelund. Four refugee reception officers and four refugee status determination officers were recruited from Pretoria and Johannesburg and in a matter of three working days they had established a functional office that started processing asylum applications.

"It was impressively fast and what we've seen since then is that they can process about 300 asylum applications per day," adds Kragelund. "It's quite a high turnout and they're working very efficiently."

The only concern for UNHCR at this point is that the asylum system in Musina is being clogged by people who do not qualify for refugee status.

"There are people who have lived in Musina for a number of years who are not refugees," says Kragelund. "They have not fled persecution, but arrived in South Africa several years ago, seeking employment. Many don't have legal status and they're trying to use the asylum system to legalise their stay in the country."

Moyo considers himself one of the lucky few. Making his way to the Nancefield Roman Catholic Church where he hopes to receive a blanket and a food parcel, courtesy of the UN Refugee Agency, he is already planning his next move.

"Now I need to find a piece job to make some money," he says walking energetically to the church. "It will mean I can try and continue with my life maybe in Johannesburg or Cape Town!"

UNHCR country pages

Zero-Star "Hotel" that Asylum-Seekers Call Home in Dijon

France is one of the main destinations for asylum-seekers in Europe, with some 55,000 new asylum applications in 2012. As a result of the growing number of applicants, many French cities are facing an acute shortage of accommodation for asylum-seekers.

The government is trying to address the problem and, in February 2013, announced the creation of 4,000 additional places in state-run reception centres for asylum-seekers. But many asylum-seekers are still forced to sleep rough or to occupy empty buildings. One such building, dubbed the "Refugee Hotel" by its transient population, lies on the outskirts of the eastern city of Dijon. It illustrates the critical accommodation situation.

The former meat-packing plant is home to about 100 asylum-seekers, mostly from Chad, Mali and Somalia, but also from Georgia, Kosovo and other Eastern European countries. Most are single men, but there are also two families.

In this dank, rat-infested empty building, the pipes leak and the electricity supply is sporadic. There is only one lavatory, two taps with running water, no bathing facilities and no kitchen. The asylum-seekers sleep in the former cold-storage rooms. The authorities have tried to close the squat several times. These images, taken by British photographer Jason Tanner, show the desperate state of the building and depict the people who call it home.

Zero-Star "Hotel" that Asylum-Seekers Call Home in Dijon

South Africa's Invisible People

In March 2011, UNHCR initiated a project with the South African non-governmental organization, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), to tackle the issue of statelessness. The specific goals of the project were to provide direct legal services to stateless people and those at risk of statelessness; to engage government on the need for legal reform to prevent and reduce statelessness; to raise awareness about stateless people and their rights; and to advocate for the ratification of the 1954 and 1961 UN conventions on statelessness.

LHR had conceived the project a year earlier after noticing that large numbers of Zimbabwean-born asylum-seekers were telling its staff that they faced problems getting jobs, studying or setting up businesses - all allowed under South African law. They told LHR that when they applied for Zimbabwean passports, necessary to access these rights, they were informed by consular officials that they were no longer recognized as Zimbabwean citizens. This effectively made them stateless.

Since the project's inception, LHR has reached more than 2,000 people who are stateless or at risk of statelessness. These people came from more than 20 different countries. It has identified numerous categories of concern in South Africa, both migrants and those born in the country.

The following photo set portrays some of the people who have been, or are being, helped by the project. The portraits were taken by photographer Daniel Boshoff. Some of the subjects asked that their names be changed.

South Africa's Invisible People

South Africa: Searching for Coexistence

South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa where registered refugees and asylum-seekers can legally move about freely, access social services and compete with locals for jobs.

But while these right are enshrined in law, in practice they are sometimes ignored and refugees and asylum-seekers often find themselves turned away by employers or competing with the poorest locals for the worst jobs - especially in the last few years, as millions have fled political and economic woes in countries like Zimbabwe. The global economic downturn has not helped.

Over the last decade, when times turned tough, refugees in towns and cities sometimes became the target of the frustrations of locals. In May 2008, xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg and quickly spread to other parts of the country, killing more than 60 people and displacing about 100,000 others.

In Atteridgeville, on the edge of the capital city of Pretoria - and site of some of the worst violence - South African and Somali traders, assisted by UNHCR, negotiated a detailed agreement to settle the original trade dispute that led to the torching of Somali-run shops. The UN refugee agency also supports work by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to counter xenophobia.

South Africa: Searching for Coexistence

Italy: Mediterranean Rescue

The Italy Navy rescues hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers on the high seas as the numbers of people undertaking the crossing of the Mediterranean from North Africa grows.

Italy: Waiting for Asylum

Sicily has a high number of asylum-seekers because of its location in the south of Italy. In 2011, Cara Mineo was set up to provide asylum-seekers with a place to live while their applications were processed. Today, more than 4,000 people stay there and must wait up to a year for a decision on their applications.

Malta: Angelina Jolie meets asylum seekers

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie visits an old air force base on Malata and talks to asylum-seekers who have fled North Africa.